Working on my landscape photography

Side Note for those that asked:  The road was better when I went out last Monday afternoon but was under water again this morning as I came in.  Fortunately I had more time to prep for it so I took my shoes and socks off and rolled up my pants so I am not squishing around Moshi today.

Recently I got a chance to watch some of “The Great Courses” videos and was very excited about learning from some of the National Geographic photographers.  Disappointed does not seem adequate of a word to describe my feelings after watching the first four lessons.  It is less about understanding how to take better photographs of the world at large and more about how egotistical elitist most of them are.  Fortunately, I had a backup plan called YouTube.  I downloaded some of the 5 to 15-minute talks about landscape photography and frame composition and I learned more than I did for the “The Great Course.” 

 

Sunset over the ridgeline behind the school.  Saturation increased in editing.  I used the stalks that look like large aloe plants but are not as my lead in.

I have been taking photos for many years, but I still feel I could be doing a better job.  It is one of the things I want to work on about my skill sets this year.  Unfortunately, my site is in a true valley at elevation.  This means that the cloud cover is often at the top of the ridgelines making it difficult to get a good shot at a sunset or sunrise photo.  So instead I tried to use some of the techniques they mentioned to get some good photos out of the situation. 

To take sunrise photos, I must head up the ridgeline behind our site around 5 am so I can get above the tree line and see the ridgeline opposite of the valley.  This is what it looks like at 5 am.

In the dark I hike up the loose stone path ways trying to avoid the razor-sharp small thorns and the toothpick style long thorns. 

Every morning that I have done this I get the same line of clouds blocking the sunrise.  But I was able to get some decent photos all the same using different settings to highlight the little bit of light shining through. 

 

unedited

original image

saturation dropped to zero, contrast upped to 10

monochrome (the way I see it)

contrast and saturation increased

contrast increased

original image but exposure decreased

Saturation increased.  That is our school in the foreground.  Water in the middle since the river is over the banks

same image as before but cropped to remove the buildings

original image

contrast increased and saturation increased.  nice how the water is showing more of the sunlight reflection

I even got a rainbow one morning coming back down.

For sunset photos I worked on getting a lead in to my focal point.  I also did this one morning when the clouds were low on the ridgeline behind our site.

original photo -2/3 on exposure

original photo -2/3 on exposure with the grass and fallen trees as lead in

monochrome in camera

monochrome in camera -1 on exposure and dead trees as lead in 

monochrome in camera grass is lead in and -2/3 on exposure

no change on exposure and grass is lead in

original image but I increased the exposure to a +2 to blowout the background and make the tree and building more a focal point

same shot with normal exposure

monochrome in camera using the sand trails as my lead in to the school and ridgeline

monochromatic in camera, grass and dead trees as lead in to school and ridgeline

dead wood as lead in and decreased exposure by 1

dead wood as lead in with exposure decreased to 2/3

grass as lead in with exposure decreased by 1 1/3

grass as lead in with exposure decreased by 1 1/3

dead wood as lead in with exposure decreased by 2/3

grass as lead in no adjustment

I also have some photos from my walks that I took with the smartphone

using the markers and road as my lead in to the ridgeline topper

using the road to lead in

just down the powerline ally

heavy rain clouds about a 5 minute walk up

heavy rainclounds but unfortunately the power lines

heavy rainclouds

something I had to kill on my walk